Author Description

For 20 years, poetry transformed my classroom. Reading poetry validated students’ individual relationships to meaning. Writing poetry invited students to be vulnerable and expressive. Self-confidence increased, trust was built, and a palpable sense of community was established. Teaching poetry achieved every social and emotional learning standard. Self-awareness was met by having students connect to what was individually meaningful to them. Self-management was met by discovering and regulating one’s emotional experience in reading and writing poetry. The standards for social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making were met by creating poetry collectively, peer editing, and respectful listening. Although teaching poetry achieves social-emotional learning standards intrinsically, the lessons in this book help students reflect upon and articulate their social-emotional experiences. This crucial step allows teachers to track and nurture social-emotional skills side by side with academic instruction. By engaging in SEL-specific dialogue at the end of a lesson, the opportunity for SEL flourishes by naming it and giving it space to grow. You do not need to be an SEL expert to implement the lessons in this book. Social Emotional Poetry was written for teachers who are unfamiliar with SEL curricula, but want social-emotional results. By just teaching the student-centered lessons, which are all constructed around reflection, exploration, and collaboration, you will be teaching social-emotional skills. You only need to facilitate a discussion about the social-emotional experience at the end of each lesson. The book is divided into eight units. Every unit provides a lesson structure that can be repeated and expanded upon by using different poems or by introducing a new poetry element. Unit 1 introduces the form and structure of poetry. Unit 2 explores what poetry sounds like. Unit 3 considers poetic topics. Unit 4 investig